On another civil war – Stephen Marche in The Guardian:

‘An incipient illegitimacy crisis is under way, whoever is elected in 2022, or in 2024. According to a University of Virginia analysis of census projections, by 2040, 30% of the population will control 68% of the Senate. Eight states will contain half the population. The Senate malapportionment gives advantages overwhelmingly to white, non– college educated voters. In the near future, a Democratic candidate could win the popular vote by many millions of votes and still lose. Do the math: the federal system no longer represents the will of the American people.
The right is preparing for a breakdown of law and order, but they are also overtaking the forces of law and order. Hard right organization have now infiltrated so many police forces – the connections number in the hundreds – that they have become unreliable allies in the struggle against domestic terrorism.’

(…)

‘Does the country have the humility to acknowledge that its old orders no longer work? Does it have the courage to begin again? As it managed so spectacularly at the birth of its nationhood, the United States requires the boldness to invent a new politics for a new era. It is entirely possible that it might do so. America is, after all, a country devoted to reinvention.
Once again, as before, the hope for America is Americans. But it is time to face what the Americans of the 1850s found so difficult to face: The system is broken, all along the line. The situation is clear and the choice is basic: reinvention or fall.’

Read the article here.

The analysis might be sharp, the medicine though is another cliché.

The US is burning but we should hope for the arsonists to show their reasonable face.

The majority of course doesn’t consist of arsonists.

The questions is: what is meant by reinvention without revolution? And can we imagine a revolution without violence? Not here.
I don’t see a revolution coming in the US, the one-legged democracy will continue its tragicomic victory march for the time being.
But as a friend always says: mistakes happen.